The final preparations are underway for the opening of the Springfield Casino Friday.
The latest is that the casino will open shortly after 11AM Friday after a parade of employees and construction workers walk from Court Square to the casino.
Public Safety officials have been working for weeks on making sure that all the bases are covered.
In order to accommodate the opening, the area around the casino will be closed to traffic.
Parts of Main Street, State and Union as well as others will be closed down.
The closings will be from 4 Friday morning to about 2pm Friday afternoon.
Exit 6 on I 91 will be closed. Traffic will get off the highway at Exit 5. That closing is set for approximately 6am Friday.
Right now, the Springfield Court system will be open. The casino is basically across the street from the Hampden County Court House.
Springfield City Hall is still scheduled to be open but in both instances a decision could be made at the last minute to close down.
Officials at the Registry of Deeds will be open as well although with the chances slim of getting people back and forth to the offices, they have increased hours and staffing at the Westfield office of the Registry of Deeds.
(Picture Credit: John Baibak, WHYN Radio News, Springfield)